How To Not Be Stupid.

by Dan Waldschmidt

How To Not Be Stupid.

Being successful in business is no easy accomplishment.
You need money, a good idea, and the marketplace willing to engage with you. But that’s not all.

You need guts. Gumption. Ambition.

Whatever you call it, you need to be able to solve problems.

Lots of problems. Lots of problems every day.

Problems about not having enough money. Problems about motivating your team to stay focused in spite of the stress that they feel. Problems about relationships. Problems about existing clients. Problems about competitors.

Let’s face it, if you can’t solve problems you can’t be successful. But you already know that. You live in that world. That’s the situation you face day after day after day.

Which brings us to a more important discussion. How do you solve problems?

Not you specifically. How does anyone solve a problem?

How “should” you solve problems? An how do you find “the answer” to problems that aren’t always black-and-white?

The answer is guts and humility.

Bold thinking coupled with an awareness that you might not always be right. You might be wrong more times than you are right.

Most decisions aren’t as clear cut as we categorize them looking back on them later. In real time, even simple decisions can seem exhaustively complex when we are stressed.

Which is where humility comes into play.

It’s always the right decision to apologize when you make a mistake that hurts other people.

It is always the right decision to admit when you weren’t right.

It’s always the right decision to be grateful when other people help you.

Which brings us back to boldness.

As long as you are humble, you can make just about any mistake that a human being can make and still recover. You can fail and bounce back. But you can’t be bold and arrogant and get the same results.

Think about that.

You need guts. You want glory. There are problems in front of you. Be bold and humble.

The next best thing to doing something brilliant is just not doing something stupid.

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About the author

Dan Waldschmidt doesn’t just talk about leveling up. He’s obsessed with it. He's set records as an ultra-runner and been the personal strategist for the leading business leaders of our time. He wrote a book, called EDGY Conversations that accidentally became a worldwide bestseller and continues to share his insights from the stage as a keynote speaker and on the blogs and podcasts you will find here. Most days, you'll find Dan heads-down, working on breakthrough strategies for his clients at EDGY Inc, a highly-focused, invite-only, business strategy execution company based out of Silicon Valley.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dan Waldschmidt doesn’t just talk about leveling up. He’s obsessed with it. He's set records as an ultra-runner and been the personal strategist for the leading business leaders of our time. He wrote a book, called EDGY Conversations that accidentally became a worldwide bestseller and continues to share his insights from the stage as a keynote speaker and on the blogs and podcasts you will find here. Most days, you'll find Dan heads-down, working on breakthrough strategies for his clients at EDGY Inc, a highly-focused, invite-only, business strategy execution company based out of Silicon Valley.

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